Maintenance, Etc; Head And Transport Cleaning; To Clean The Heads And Transport; Checking Error Rates - Tascam DA-78HR Owner's Manual

11 - Maintenance, etc.

11.1Head and transport cleaning

The DA-78HR incorporates an internal cleaning
mechanism that not only cleans the rotary head, but
also the tape as it enters the tape path. The provision
of this cleaning mechanism significantly reduces the
need for manual cleaning. If, despite the internal
cleaning mechanism, the PB CONDITION
6
lights, the heads are dirty and manual cleaning
procedures should be followed.
NOTE
S —I M PO R TA N T
Use a TEAC HC-8 cleaning tape (recommended) or a dry
cleaning tape specially designed for Hi8 8mm video
equipment.
NEVER use a wet-type cleaning tape, as this will result in
winding problems.
The use of the dry tape will reduce the head life of
the DA-78HR by about five hours. Use of manual
cleaning is therefore discouraged.
We recommend the following schedule (based on our
experience with the DTRS system) for cleaning and
maintenance schedules. See 11.1.3, "Checking drum
time" below for details of how to check head usage
time.
Every 350 to 400
Perform manual cleaning of heads and
hours
guides as described below. Check the
tape path alignment after cleaning. This
requires proper test and measurement
equipment, and should be performed
only by qualified service personnel.
Every 1000 hours
A complete alignment check should be
(every third performed.
cleaning)
The above cleaning cycle timings are based on the
assumption that the DA-78HR is being operated in a
clean environment. A dusty or smoky atmosphere
will shorten the time between cleaning operations
NOTE
Most name brand tapes are of very high quality. How-
ever, it is sometimes possible to receive "bad" stock
which exhibits excessive shedding characteristics. If
you receive such tape stock, stop using it immedi-
ately, and follow the cleaning procedure as described
below.

11.1.1 To clean the heads and transport

1 Press the
SHIFT
key so that the
is flashing, and press the
68
TASCAM DA-78HR
indicator
SHIFT
indicator
MENU key until the
display shows
maintenance).
2 Press the
SUB MENU
briefly shows
lowed by
Here, the xxxx represents the number of times
cleaning has been performed.
3 Use the
key to change
If a tape has already been loaded, it will auto-
matically be ejected.
Pressing at this point will show the previous
display.
4 Insert the cleaning tape.
5 The cleaning tape will "play" for about 5 sec-
onds (the display will show
( CLEANING )) and then be ejected automati-
cally. The cleaning counter (number of times
the heads have been cleaned) will be incre-
mented by one.
• Do not attempt to rewind or fast forward the clean-
ing tape, either in the DA-78HR or in a video unit.
Simply insert it into the DA-78HR when you use it
the next time.
• Excessive cleaning can cause excessive wear on the
heads. Do not clean the heads too frequently, and
never perform the head cleaning procedure more
than 5 times running.
• In addition to cleaning the heads, we recommend
that you have the DA-78HR checked by an autho-
rized TASCAM service technician every 500 hours
or so of use.

11.1.2 Checking error rates

If you hear noise and distortion on playback, even
after cleaning the heads, or if you are presented with
a tape of dubious quality, you may want to check the
block error rate of the tape.
1 Press the
SHIFT
key so that the
is flashing, and press the
display shows
maintenance).
2 Press the
SUB MENU
shows ( BER OFF
3 Use the
and keys to change
The PB CONDITION indicator will start to
flash.
( MAINTN-- —
key until the display
CLEN xxxx
( ), fol-
CLEN OFF
( ).
to ( ON ).
SHIFT
indicator
MENU key until the
( MAINTN-- —
key until the display
).
to .